Jibing in high winds

[2Gringos]

Where's his other hull?

[GeorgeB]

Smack, I can’t open the link, but I would guess you are looking at the “Boom Brake ™” device. A couple of friends have them and they work by having a line from one side of the boat threaded around the device and attached to boat on the other side. The theory is as the boom flys across, the friction in the device slows the line running through it thus “braking” the boom. My problem with them is they are either attached to the shroud chain plates or toe rail causing a tripping hazard going forward and while the shock loads might not be strong enough to mess with your chain plates, I’m concerned that there might be just enough movement to break the caulking seal. Re-caulking chain plates is a bear and I’d rather not do it

What the Navy does (go to the sailing program on the Annapolis web site) is to through bolt padeyes on each side near the end of boom, Then run some line about halfway along the boom, terminating it with a thimble. Mount a shock cord at the gooseneck that connects to the thimble. When in the stowed position, the assembly rests along side the boom. When running down wind the preventer goes from the cockpit through a block at the bow and back to the boom, attaching at the thimble. This makes it relatively safe and simple to attach and detach the preventer before and after a gybe. The preventer line itself is Dacron, allowing for stretch if the boom gets loaded up when getting dunked in the water. The only concern is you still need to release it in an accidental gybe as the load gets transferred to the gooseneck breaking it there or along the mid section of the boom.

Far easier is to know how to sail in waves and not get the boat headed in the wrong direction in the first place.


Coastal – Man, you need to get yourself back up here and sail in some breeze! Spending too much time down there will spoil you and you’ll never want to sail cold, damp and wet again!

[GeorgeB]

Oh, by the way Smack, check out the third vid in the knockdown series. You see the Bene-Farr 40.7 in all their glory working to get the mess sorted out. Only a couple minutes of footage but must have felt like hours for forepeak crew.

[MC1]

I have a boom brake rigged almost exactly as shown in the pic, but haven't used it in anger yet. It's been helpful in moderate wind; I'm trying to step up the experience levels with it a notch at a time.

I'd be very interested in hearing techniques, do's and don'ts, horror stories, whatever, concerning jibing in high winds with the boom break.

I appreciate the caution about not breaking the chainplate caulking. I'm also concerned about the force not being in-line with the shroud, so it exerts a bending force on the chain plate, introducing the possibility of metal fatigue. Perhaps a dedicated tack plate is in order with re-enforced back plate. For this thread though, I'd be good to focus on use of the brake for jibbing in high winds rather than its installation.

[Sanduskysailor]

Smack that isn't a death roll or even a round down jibe. It looks more like a regular broach in high winds. Death rolls occur when running in waves and the boat rolls quickly from dipping the pole into the water to dipping the boom in the water usually repeatedly as the the rudder loses flow. This happened regularly on older IOR boats going DDW in waves. A round down (aka Chinese jibe) is when the boat dives to leeward, accidentally jibes and the spinnaker fills on the wrong side. Usually the pole breaks or bends in half, or rips spinnaker track out, or breaks the mast. I've been lucky to only experience 2 in my sailing career. One fortunately the pole ripped the track off the mast. The other we bent the 3.5" pole in half. No fun and scary stuff.

[puddinlegs]

Smack's BBS vids: The second one has the extended, "woahoahoah..." slow mo pucker factor and is indeed a round down. (amazingly Infra Red is still racing after all these years, how about that, eh?)

[charlottea]

Here's a picture of the preventer rigged from boom end to bow, back to the cockpit.

Offshore Sailing: 200 Essential ... - Google Books

Hope the link works....